De Luca sets PR, places 12th at Stanford Invite

Sunday

Sep 30, 2012 at 12:20 AMSep 30, 2012 at 12:24 AM

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Phoenix sophomore Nevina De Luca set a new personal record and placed 12th to lead a strong contingent of Pirate girls to a 19th-place Division 4 team finish at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Phoenix sophomore Nevina De Luca set a new personal record and placed 12th to lead a strong contingent of Pirate girls to a 19th-place Division 4 team finish at the Stanford Invitational on Saturday.

De Luca improved upon the Phoenix sophomore class record she set earlier this season by finishing the 5,000-meter race in 19 minutes, 35 seconds for a 20-second PR. Three of her teammates also finished in the top 150 at the prestigious meet: Lindsey Vermillion (49th, 20:55), Ashlee Vos (108th, 21:52) and Arin Fitch (145th, 23:06). Vermillion's mark was a season best and Vos' was a personal record.

Cascade Christian's Stephanie Croy placed 18th in 19:53 to lead the Challengers, who also had two boys — Tristan Akery (64th, 17:14) and Alex Cummings (73rd, 17:21) — finish in the top 100 in Division 4.

The Phoenix boys were paced by junior Philip Todak, who set a new PR and placed 103rd in 17:39.

In Division 5 action, St. Mary's placed four boys in the top 75 and three girls in the top 60. On the boys side, junior Chris Martin finished 27th in 17:54 and freshman Elijah Conway placed 48th in 18:29. Senior Brooklyn Gillespie paced the St. Mary's girls by finishing 40th in 22:07, while freshmen Madeline Volk and Taylor Kreul placed 58th and 60th, respectively.

NIKE PRE-NATIONALS — At Portland, North Medford's boys finished 13th out of 23 squads in the Danner Championship division and the Black Tornado's girls placed 25th out of 28 Division 1 teams.

Senior Caleb Diaz paced the North boys by covering the 5,000-meter course in 16:47.45, which put him 70th overall. Junior teammate Ray Schireman was one spot back in 71st at 16:47.51 and senior Blake Spencer was grouped nicely in 73rd at 16:48.29.

Senior Joey Rincon (89th, 17:03.92) and junior Aaran Fagan (92nd, 17:04.39) rounded out the scorers for North, which had a 332 total score. Rocky Mountain won with 112 points.

WOAHINK LAKE INVITATIONAL — At Florence, Hidden Valley senior Sierra Brown placed second overall in the girls race and Ashland's girls finished second to Reynolds in the team competition at Honeyman State Park.

Brown covered the 5,000-meter course in 19:07.80 to finish runner-up to Siuslaw's Katy Potter (18:59.30). Hidden Valley freshman Megan Schiavone finished 21st in 22:05.90 as the only other Mustang runner.

Kia Parrish-Haim was the top finisher for the Grizzlies, coming in seventh at 21:16.60, with teammate Quinn Blackwolf not far behind in ninth at 21:24.00. Also scoring for Ashland were Sara Dunagan (20th, 22:05.30), Madeline Chaves (29th, 22:26.70) and Emma Parker (30th, 22:27.10). The Grizzlies posted 86 points while Reynolds had 69.

On the boys side, Hidden Valley placed fourth with 117 points and Ashland was ninth at 200. Siuslaw had the top three finishers and won with 19 points.

TRIAD 90, PROSPECT 50 — At Klamath Falls, Prospect quarterback Boston Ehlers ran for 230 yards and one touchdown and passed for 203 yards and four scores in the District 2 road loss.

Darren Stillwagon hauled in two of those TD passes and ran for another, finishing with 67 yards rushing on six attempts to go with 94 yards receiving on six catches for the Cougars (3-2, 2-2 Dist. 2).

Triad (3-1, 3-0) outgained Prospect 707-374 on the ground, with Gabe Ovgard toting the ball 21 times for 430 yards and six TDs. Ovgard also passed for 119 yards and two scores while leading the defensive effort with 14 tackles, including one for a safety.

Senior outside Tamika Funk pounded 13 kills and came up with 14 digs to lead the Loggers. Joli Hobbs, a senior setter, dished out 13 assists and also contributed four kills, three blocks and six aces. Sophomore setter Lisa Davis had nine assists, while senior middle Brittaney Gorman provided nine digs.

NEWBERG TOURNAMENT — At Newberg, Cole Harding scored three goals against Bellevue, Wash., including the game-winner late, as Ashland pulled out a 7-6 victory to place third in the 12-team tournament.

The Grizzlies (7-3) opened the tournament with a 7-4 win over South Eugene on Friday, then beat Wilson, Wash., 13-3 and lost to Newberg 8-4 to set up the third-place game.

Against Wilson, Lewi Kurach, a foreign exchange student from Poland, scored three goals, Alex Sukles and Hoku Eggersten added two apiece and goalie Miles Furuichi had five blocks and an assist.

Furuichi also had nine blocks in the loss to Newberg, and three blocks and an assist against Bellevue.